The History of the English Phonetic Association

A group of French and British language teachers, led by the French linguist Paul Passy, in 1889 created what would become known as the International Phonetic Association.

• in 1888, the alphabet was revised.

• major revisions and expansions took place in 1900 and 1932.

• The alphabet was last revised in May 2005

It had another revision, this time with the IPA Ikeal Convention in 1989.

To provide one letter for each distinctive sound
This means that it does not use combinations of letters to represent single sounds

Most letters are either Latin or Greek, or modifications thereof

The IPA is based on the Latin alphabet

There are also several derived or taken from the Greek alphabet.

This inventory uses capital or cursive forms, diacritics, and rotations.

107 letters

31 diacritics

19 additional signs